Mail box



A. COLEMAN 1,848,995

March 8, 1932.

MAIL BOX 2 Sheets$heet 1 Original Filed Oct. 7, 1929 JNVENTOR.

A TTOIWEY.

March 8, 1932. A, CQLEMAN 1,848,995.

MIL BOX Original il d O 7, 929 2 Sheets- 1186 2 Gala mam,

INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

' t6 provide a mail box which shall be convenient Patented Mar. 8, 1932 UNITED STATES ADNEY COLEMAN, OF MOUNT GILE AD, OHIO MAIL BOX Application filed October 7, 1929, Serial No. 397,946. Renewed January 19, 1932.

This invention relates to the class of mail boxes which are designed chiefly for rural mail delivery.

The primary object of the invention is to in its use, and which shall have its interior efiectively protected from the entrance of dust, moisture and snow incident to the exposure of-the box to the weather.

A further object is to provide a mail box of the above kind which is extremely simple and durable in construction, which is so constructed as to permit use of the entire capacity of the box for accommodating mail mat ter, and which, when opened, permits ex tremely free access to the mail matter for its removal.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent as the nature of the'invention is better understood, and the same consists in the novel form, combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, shown in the accompanying drawings and claimed.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a mail box embodying the present invention mounted upon a supporting post, the cover section of the box being in closed position;

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 with the cover section of the box in open position.

Figure 3 is a view showing the mail box in central vertical longitudinal section.

Figure 4 is a horizontal longitudinal section on line 4-4 of Figure 3; and

Figure 5 is a vertical transverse section taken on line 5-5 of Figure 3.

Referring more in detail to the drawings, the present mail box embodies a relatively shallow open-top bottom section or receptacle 5 whose bottom wall is formed with a plurality of spaced longitudinal upstanding corrugations 6 for reinforcing purposes and to facilitate the insertion of the fingers beneath any mail matter placed in the receptacle 5 whereby it may be readily removed. The upper edge of the receptacle 5 is suitably reinforced at 7, while the front end wall of said receptacle is of outwardly curved arcuate form, as indicated at 8 and for a purpose which will later become apparent.

I A U-shaped yoke 9 snugly embraces the receptacle 5 near its rear end and is rigidly attached to said receptacle by riveting or the like, the intermediate portion of the yoke extending across the bottom of the receptacle 5 and the legs thereof extending upwardly at the sides of said receptacle as clearly shown in Figures 3, 4 and 5. This yoke reinforces the receptacle 5 and serves as a suitable mounting means for the pivoted cover of the mail box as will presently become apparent. The vertical end or leg portions of the yoke 9 are provided with vertical elongated slots 10 which open through the upper ends of said legs.

The present mail box further embodies a cover section 11 of considerably greater depth than the bottom section 5 and open at the bottom so as to readily loosely fit overand completely conceal the receptacle 5 when in closed position as shown in Figures 1, 8 and 5. Riveted or otherwise rigidly attached to the side walls of the cover section 11, adjacent the lower edges of said side walls and near the rear end of said cover section; are plates 12 having inwardly projecting pivot studs or trunnions'13 adapted to pivotally engage in and rest upon the bottom walls of the slot 10 for mounting the cover section so as to swing vertically relative to the bottom section 5 to open or closed position. The slots 10 permit the pivot studs 13 to slide downwardly into place when assembling the device, and said pivot studs are headed as at 14: to engage between the vertical legs of the yoke 9 and the side walls of thesection 5 where the latter are inwardly offset as at 15 to accommodate said heads 14:. In this way, a'simple and durable construction is had in which the pivotal movement of'the cover is permitted and lateral play thereof minimized. It will be particularly noted that the side and end walls of the cover section 11 project slightly below the bottom of the bottom receptacle 5 when in closed position, thus substantially concealing the latter and projecting considerably above the-same so as to provide a mail box of considerable capacity. Due to the location of the pivots for the cover section 11 near the bottom of the latter and the receptacle 5 and near the rear ends of both, the cover section is adapted, when swung upwardly and rearwardly to a substantially vertical open position, to uncover the major portion of the bottom section 5 and thereby expose substantially the entire interior of the latter for permitting convenient removal of packages or other mail matter, as well as insertion thereof, even though of a size or quantity to fill the entire box.

The mail box is adapted to be mounted upon a suitable support such as an upright post 1.6, the bottom section 5 being rigidly mounted on the upper end of said post so that the pivot studs 13 are disposed in a vertical plane slightly to the rear of said post. To mount the section 5 in this position, an angle iron strip 17 is attached at one end to the intermediate portion of the yoke 9 so as to present a horizontal upper leg extending forwardly from the yoke 9 against the bottom of the bottom section 5 and across the upper end of the post 16, and a vertical leg extending downwardly against the front side of said post where it is bolted or otherwise fastened to said post as at 18. The attachment of the box to the post is completed by the use of a pair of angular braces 19 disposed at opposite sides of the post 16 and bolted intermediate their ends to the latter as at 20, said braces having forwardly and rearwardly projecting upwardly diverging legs or arms attached to the bottom of the bottom section 5 of the mail box respectively adjacent the front and rear ends thereof as at 21. 3

Attached to the rear wall of the cover section 11 is a combined stop and buffer 22 formed of curved spring metal and depending below the bottom of the cover section 11 in position to strike the rear side of the post 16 when said cover section is tilted upwardlv and rearwardly to a substantially vertical open position as indicated by dotted lines in Figure 3. In this way sudden opening of the cover section is effectively cushioned, and it will be further noted that the buffer 22 projects forwardly of the rear wall of the cover section 11 in a position to engage the bottom of the bottom mail box section 5 at the rear end of the latter to limit the forward and downward closing movement of the cover section 11 to a substantially horizontal position.

The arcuate front wall 8 of the bottom receptacle 5 permits ready opening of the cover section 11 and accommodation of a suitable coin box 23 at the front of said curved wall 8 so as to be concealed behind the front wall of the cover section 11 when the latter is closed. The coin box 23 simply consists of an elongated receptacle open at the top and its rear side and pivoted at 24 to the front wall 8 of the bottom receptacle 5 above the center of gravity of said coin box so that the latter normally assumes an upright receiving position as shown in Figure 3 out of the path of the front wall of the cover section 11 and in contact with the front wall 8 of the bottom receptacle 5. The coin box is thus substantially closed at all times until manually tilted forwardly and downwardly to completely open position as shown in Figure 2 when the cover section 11 is opened. Due to the rear open portion of the coin box removal of its contents is facilitated, and it will be understood that such coin box is provided for payment for required postage stamps needed to insure the delivery of any mail matter placed in the box for collection by the postal carrier. The front wall of the cover section 11 has a forwardly and downwardly projecting extension or curtain 25 that provides additional protection'to the coin box and serves as a handle for use in raisingthe cover section to open position or lowering it to closed position.

A plate 26 is riveted or otherwise rigidly secured against one side of the cover section 11, and near the upper rear corner of this plate is provided a rigid laterally projecting pivot pin 27 on which is mounted for swinging movement a signal fla 28. The signal flaghas a staff whose bottom end portion is enlarged as at 29 to wipe across the outer face of the wear plate 26 and reduce lateral play to a minimum. The rear vertical edge of the enlarged portion 29 is inclined as at 30, and projecting laterally from and rigid with the plate 26 directly below the pivot pin 27 is a stop pin 31 arranged to cooperate with the inclined edge 30 of the staff portion 29 at opposite sides of the pivot 27 to limit the swinging movement of the flag either to a vertical operative position as shown in Figure 1 or to a horizontal inoperative position as shown in Figure 2. It will of course be understood that the horizontal position is referred to considering the position of the flag when the cover section is closed.

In using the mail box, the cover section 11 is swung upwardly and rearwardly to the open position of Figure 2 and the desired mail matter is inserted or placed within the bottom receptacle 5. If postage stamps are not placed upon the mail matter the required cost thereof in coin is deposited in the coin box 23 and the cover section 11 is then closed. The flag 28 is then swung to the vertical operative position of Figure 1 so to call attention of the mail collector that the mail box contains matter which is desired to be delivered. The mail collector swings the cover section 11 to open position and readily removes the mail matter, at the same time tilting the coin box to the open position of Figure 2 for removal of the coin deposited therein. When the coins have been removed, the coin box will return automatically to normal closed position as shown in Figure 3 thus permitting the complete closing of the cover section 11 when it is swung to the full line position of Figure 8 from the dotted line open position thereof in the same figure. The flag 28 is then swung to its horizontal inoperative position until further mail matter is inserted in the mail box.

From the above description it will be seen that I have provided a simple and durable form of mail box especially adapted for use in connection with rural mail delivery, and wherein the construction is such as to readily protect the interior from dust, moisture and snow. Moreover, the construction facilitates utilization of the complete capacity of the mail box for reception of'mail matter and ready insertion or removal thereof. Minor changes are contemplated within the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

What I claim as new is:

1. The combination of a stationary support, a bottom open-top receptacle section rigidly secured in a horizontal position on said support, and an open-bottom cover section pivotally conected to said bottom receptacle section adapted to fit over and substantially conceal the latter when closed, the pivotal and tilting connection between the cover section and the bottom receptacle section being arranged adjacent to and rearwardly of said support, and a resilient bufl'er attached to the rear wall of said cover section and arranged to engage the rear side of said support and the bottom of said bottom receptacle section to respectively limit the movement of the cover section to a horizontal position when closed and to a substantially vertical position when opened.

2. The combination of a stationary support, a bottom open-top receptacle section rigidly secured in a horizontal position on said support, and an open-bottom cover section pivotally connected to said bottom receptacle section adapted to fit over and substantially conceal the latter when closed, said bottom receptacle section having an outwardly curved arcuate front wall, and a coin box pivoted to said front wall to normally ceptacle section adapted to fit over and sub- 7 stantially conceal the latter when closed, said bottom receptacle section having an outwardly curved arcuate front wall, and a coin box pivoted to said front wall to normally assume an upright substantially closed posi- 

